Helping Hands
by WorldEaterJho
Summary: With the battles against his Freljord companions, Braum has trouble sleeping. Itsy helps. Rated M for gore. Elise/Braum


Note: This is my second short of two characters, Elise and Braum. I'll be sure to upload more shorts INDIVIDUALLY (not chapter by chapter.) since I have a lot of ideas. Stay tuned ~

He wasn't a liar.

He really was optimistic about life.

Most days he felt like he could do anything, protect anyone. He didn't pass a mountain that he wouldn't stop and compare himself to the less sturdy object. And he didn't cross by someone who couldn't be saved.

But this week was difficult. He didn't doubt his strength (_Please._), but the fights had been brutal. It was as if he was being tested by the league itself. It wouldn't be the first time his idealism had been picked at; stretched and held close under a microscope. And he always came out on top.

But,

What was this week all about? From the first day until now, he had been paired with Noxians. Good guys at heart, misdirected sometimes, and great allies in battle. The only problem with said battles, was they were often put against the Freljord. He knew he would eventually be put against his friends, but he wasn't prepared.

Especially not for the battle against Sejuani.

She came after their marksman Draven, and he blocked her stunning bola with his shield. He didn't catch the battle with the others, since it was Draven and him against the tribe leader, but his own fight was brutal.

Sejuani charged at them with dogged determination. She slowed them, jumped great lengths to close the gaps, and most of all, she hurt. The enchanted ice she inflicted on him pierced through his skin like phantom blades. It ripped through him internally, past his hardened skin and muscles and went through his vessels. His channels popped like a machete through rotting vines. He didn't know he could feel pain from such miniscule portions of himself, but the ice made him more sensitive than he ever was to pain.

When one of Draven's axes blinded Bristle's left eye and temporarily halted the charge, he had to take a knee behind his shield. He closed his eyes as he breathed for air, but after hearing the screams of a woman, they opened again. On his feet and back to his knees in a swift motion, he was floored by Sejuani's execution.

Draven knocked her off of her discombobulated boar with more power than his little body lead on. And before she could react, he had straddled her fallen body between his thighs. He had already finished with his lewd comment before Braum had looked, and brought the tip of his axe into her right eye, causing for the scream that had gotten his attention.

But then he dragged the axe down.

He ripped through her socket, half of her face, and the center of one of her breasts. Braum had never seen Sejuani look so meek, especially under the influence of a man, and the sounds she made was nauseating.

When her eyeball cracked open like an egg, it was a high pitched shrill. She sounded angry even, reaching for her bola while her torso was still caged in under Draven. But when the blade came through her face, running through her right nostril and splitting her mouth open, it became more like a howl. Etched in her cries was disbelief. Braum supposed in those few moments where she still breathed, she also didn't expect Draven to have such strength, and previously planned on coming out of the battle alive.

But as his axe traveled further, opening up her throat and traveling down to her breast, ripping through her armor and bone like they were butter, her scream became a humbled choke. She struggled to breathe through the pools of blood caught up in her mouth and throat, and her gags were more like quiet whimpers then.

And then she laughed. Clear and loud like a bell, she laughed mockingly. It was similar to a crude jeer, a taunt for more. It was only when she spoke, wondering if 'This was what the iceborn looked like on the inside' did Braum realize that it was Draven laughing. Draven's sinister chuckle filling the air and overpowering the boom of the announcer, who was declaring the battle an ace.

"Ugh…" Braum's voice was weak when he snapped out of his nightmare. He didn't know he had fallen asleep until he began to recall Ashe's death. His gag reflex reacted immediately when the image of her beheading flashed in the back of his eyes and he shot up from the floor, coughing like Sejuani on her own blood.

"What's wrong? Yesterday still got you down?"

Braum turned behind him, finding no body for the voice he heard kissing his ears. He squinted his eyes to see through the darkness, searching through the murkiness of the willow trees until he found a pair of red eyes in the shadows.

"I can help you."

Braum's ears struggled to catch her breathy offers, but when he finally understood her, he laughed and shook his head no. "Ah, no thank you Itsy. Braum knows better than to be fly in web." The strength in his voice returned now that he was no longer alone. He got up to his feet and began doing light stretches to prepare himself for exercise. If he was going to have another sleepless night, he should at least be ready for the morning.

And though he was sure she was near him earlier, there was now an eerie silence. Her company may have been short lived, but she was missed. She wasn't the most trustworthy of his current teammates, but her presence soothed him the most of them all. And not surprisingly, she was a great listener, and never minded his rambles. A good story would have rested his nerves too.

A tap on his shoulder made him jump a bit, as he already assumed the spider queen had left. He turned around again and saw a silk hammock between two trees; swinging gently by the winds of temptation alone. The hammock was wide and deep bellied, able to hold him and company with ease. The silk held a faint silver glow, which was why he was able to catch it with his eyes in the dark forest, and why it called him closer.

"Why would I betray you? You are my favorite ally." Her disembodied voice kissed his earlobe again. No matter how close to him she seemed, he knew if he turned, she wouldn't be there.

"Braum Itsy's favorite? Ha!" He didn't fall for her corrupted flattery. He turned his back to the hammock and waited for Elise to defend her case. Not that he would be listening, but he was expecting her pride to be somewhat bruised. When she didn't respond, his heart sunk again.

"Again with the reappearing and disappearing."

He began his exercise routine while mulling over her words like thick stew in his mouth. At first it seemed like she was lying, but, she _did_ smile at him every time they talked. Well, the times she decided to actually show her face. And despite that, he had gotten used to the pitch in her voice when she gave such a wicked smirk, he could hear her grin even when he didn't see her.

Today's battle made him sure of that. He had saved her from sure death by taking Ezreal's attacks for her as she limped to safety. When they got back to the fountain, she looked at him once before turning away. The smile in her voice was different then, but he could still hear it.

"Enough for now." After two hours passed, Braum grew tired of exercise. It didn't lift his spirits like it usually did, and it didn't take his mind off of Elise. His muscles felt heavy with fatigue and his sight was dimming by the second. Sleep was coming.

A glimmer of silver caught his left peripheral and he faced the hammock once more. It did beat the muddy soil, and he'd be lying if he said the thought of rocking himself to sleep wasn't soothing.

"Ok Itsy. Just this once." He didn't know if she was around, so he was mostly speaking to himself as he eagerly crossed the distance between him and his silk bed. Giving in to her offer like water crashing from a broken dam, he abandoned his shield and hopped on the hammock. It held his sudden weight without a cry of complaint, but the rocking he yearned for was difficult to achieve with his weakening muscles. He could sleep in the soft replacement of the ground, but he yearned for the therapeutic sway that would bring back dreams instead of nightmares. A deep sigh reverberated through his bones. Beggars can't be choosers.

**Swish...swish...swish..**

The hammock began rocking left and right, moving Braum's body with it through it's hypnotic swings. He looked up and saw Elise lying on a branch above him. Her clawed hand held the ends of the hammock while pushing it to her will. She looked down at him, catching his drowsy chestnuts in her crimson pools. His gaze dropped to her breasts, which were squished together as a result of her lying on her side. And though her pale skin was provocative, Braum suddenly remembered Sejuani's breast and breast plate being split open in one movement. He flinched, losing everything over the flashback. His steady heartbeat, his deep breathing, his mirrored smile for the queen above him...everything.

"Talk to me."

Braum watched her lips as she spoke, not really trusting that she was so high in the tree with her voice so close to his body.

"Itsy." He murmured his nickname for her with a platonic wanting for her closeness. He first called her that as a joke when they first met. Secretly it was to mock her, but he said it with such a jovial flare, Elise never took it as an insult. At least, he couldn't detect that she did.

But now, the meaning changed. Itsy was kin to a pet name for a loved one. Itsy was the cry on the battlefield for the spider queen to watch her back. Itsy was the involuntary whisper coming from his lips as he stared at her.

As he began to speak about how he missed his cottage, he was wishing she didn't notice the change in nicknames. The change in his voice. The lack of a shield between his body and hers. But deep down, he knew that she noticed. He could see it in her eyes.


End file.
